Linda Puna – 2017 Award Winner

The Dawn Slade-Faull Award winner in 2017, Linda Puna is a Yankunytjatjara woman, born in Mimili Community on the APY Lands in the far northwest of South Australia. Linda spent her formative years on her homeland around Park Well, sharing a house with her cousins, sisters and parents. She grew up surrounded by skilled artisans and storytellers, learning about the stories that inform her paintings today by listening to and watching the women in her family carve punu (wooden sculptures).

As the first Anangu woman to live in a remote community whilst being dependent on an electric wheelchair, Linda shares a unique perspective on life – full of joy, resilience and strengths – in her artwork. She often depicts elements of the rocky desert country surrounding Mimili, referencing the Maku (witchetty grub) Tjukurpa. Her paintings often combine these abstract concepts with more figurative depictions of day-to-day objects such as Toyota 4WD vehicles, houses, cardboard boxes, windmills and water tanks. Linda’s work has been featured in Mimili Maku Arts group exhibitions at galleries across Australia, as well as overseas in exhibitions held in Singapore and the USA.